


What Gets Us In The End

by DestielDeducingInTheTARDIS (OfficialCasNovak)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst, Coming of Age, Cutting, M/M, Suicidal Castiel, Suicidal Dean, Weechesters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-07 23:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfficialCasNovak/pseuds/DestielDeducingInTheTARDIS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas and Dean meet at a young age and learn from each other the circumstances of life and death and the boundaries of human emotion as they grow up together and apart, discovering themselves through each other.</p>
<p>Basically Dean and Cas meet as kids and grow up best friends, finding themselves in difficult situations and struggling to figure out who they are. Very much a coming of age fic, lots of angst later on. Mostly fluff at the beginning.</p>
<p>Trigger warnings as applicable at the beginning of each chapter. Un-beta'd. </p>
<p>Based on an RP I did. Early chapters and background are all mine, later stuff is more heavily from the RP.<br/>All rights to Kripke and the CW.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1995

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I've written a few things on ff.net that I'll transfer over here when I get around to it. This is just the first chapter of this, so let me know what you think! If you all like it then I'll definitely continue.
> 
> No trigger warnings for Chapter 1. Just some cute Wee!Chesters and Wee!Cas. 
> 
> (Side note: I use angsty!teen Cas or Dean as my muse way too often. It's becoming a problem. But that's how this got here.) 
> 
> Enjoy!!  
> ~Cat

1995

.....

Dean was seven the first time he heard those words. His three-year-old brother’s fish had died and his dad held Sam and the fish was flushed down the toilet. John had wiped away Sam’s tears and said, “It’s okay son, death gets us all in the end.”

In retrospect, that may not have been the best thing to tell a toddler, but at seven, Dean thought it was the smartest thing he had ever heard. He had reached up and held his little brother’s hand and repeated, “Death gets us all in the end.”

The fish disappeared down the toilet. 

.....

Exactly five days, seventeen hours, two minutes, and forty seconds after the Great Fish Funeral, a moving van pulled into the driveway next door. Sam, who was watching cartoons and drawing pictures of fish, ignored the commotion, but Dean jumped up onto the sofa and leaned on the back, “Mommy, what’s going on at the Robinson’s?”

“Honey, I told you,” Mary responded from the kitchen, “Old Mr. Robinson passed away last month. There’s a new family moving in next door.” Dean sighed and stared out the window mumbling, “Death gets us all in the end.”

He stayed with his forehead pressed against the glass, breath fogging up the window, until three kids ran out of the house. The oldest was a boy, just a few years older than Dean, with long blond hair and a ratty t-shirt. As soon as he got outside, he jumped onto the nearest tree, eagerly scrambling up into the branches, a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth. Behind him, the other two followed at a slower pace, the redheaded girl about a year Dean’s elder holding the hand of her younger brother. Dean’s eyes widened at the small boy. He was obviously between his and Sam’s age, the darkest and messiest hair Dean had ever seen and even from the distance Dean could tell how blue his eyes were. The little boy smiled and Dean decided they would be best friends. 

He grabbed Sammy’s hand and yelled that they were going to play outside, earning a “Be careful!” from their mom as the screen door slammed shut behind them and they were hit with the brisk spring winds. Sam toddled down the steps holding some paper and a few crayons while Dean barreled ahead, jumping on the crunchy leaves and laughing at the noise. “Hi!” he yelled next door, and the smaller boy and girl turned to look at him, both smiling. Dean helped Sam down the rest of the steps and the two ran over, “I’m Dean. I’m seven. This is my brother Sammy. He’s three.”

“I’m Anna,” the redhead responded, giving Dean a gappy smile where her two front teeth were missing, “I’m eight. This is Castiel. He’s six. Gabriel’s eleven. He’s in the tree.”

At seven, Dean had not yet learned to think before he spoke, “I think your names are weird.”

“We’re named after angels,” Anna informed him. Castiel gave him a shy smile.

It was ten minutes later; after Gabriel had gone inside and Anna was sitting on the Winchester’s porch coloring with Sam, when Castiel finally broke the staring contest he was having with Dean and spoke for the first time, “I think it’s weird too.”

“What is?”

“My name.”

Dean smiled, “You’re weird, so it fits.”

.....

By midsummer, Dean and Castiel were inseparable and as a consequence, the families were quite close. Mary and Rachel couldn’t have gotten along better, and spent days laughing and talking on one of their porches while their husbands were at work and their kids played in the yards. While the others ran around, Dean and Castiel often sat quietly to talk or play instead. Mary smiled at Rachel one day in June as the pair jumped through the sprinkler, “Those two have something special.”

“You’re right,” Rachel agreed, laughing at the boys, “They’ll be there for each other until the end.”

Mary couldn’t help but think of her husband’s words earlier that year.

Dean and Castiel squealed and splashed water at each other.

.....

By July, there were regular barbeques and sleepovers. John talked about cars and Chuck talked about his writing and the women complained about their husbands and the terrible heat. Dean pushed his toy Impala around on the driveway and Castiel leaned against the house in the shade, pencil brushing across paper as he tried to sketch Dean, “Stop moving, Dean!”

“Vroom! Look at her go, Cas!”

Cas was to dumbfounded by the nickname to respond, ducking his head to focus on the drawing again, though his mother noticed a light blush and a small smile creeping across his young face. Mary only shook her head and laughed when it was pointed out, “Like you said, until the end.”

.....

In August, Cas’s dog was hit by a car. It was four months, two days, three hours, and seventeen minutes since Dean and Cas met. The pair was seated on Cas’s sofa, too-short legs dangling off the edge as they watched cartoons with a large bowl of popcorn balanced between them. During one of the many commercial break induced popcorn fights; a loud squeal and Anna’s high-pitched screams turned their laughter to stony silence. 

They anxiously ran after Rachel, out to the edge of the yard, where Anna was cradling the lab’s head and a man stood by her, apologizing profusely. Rachel picked Anna up and hugged her tight as she talked to the man, forgetting the younger two boys standing in shock behind her. Dean looked at Cas standing next to him out of the corner of his eye and watched in heartbreak as a single tear rolled down Cas’s cheek. Without thinking, he reached out and grabbed Cas’s hand, squeezing it gently, before leading his friend over to the dog. The pair knelt by her, Dean stroking her side as Cas gently laid her head in his lap, “I’m sorry, Maddie. I’m really sorry.”

Dean stared down at the dog and chewed on his lip, before turning to meet Cas’s eyes, “Death gets us all in the end.”

Cas furrowed his eyebrows at Dean, then leaned over and kissed his dog, “You’re wrong, Dean. Even after, there’s always love.”

If Dean were old enough to understand what love was, he would have said he fell in love with Cas right then and there. The boy who proved him wrong.


	2. 2001

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is kinda short right now. I'll add more later when I get home. Sorry it's taken so long to update.

"Cas!"

Three weeks, one day, and five hours after Cas turned thirteen, he was beat up for the first time. They would graduate soon; it was almost May. The air was warm on Dean's face when he found his best friend crouched on the sidewalk next to the school, cradling his arm and sporting a black eye, "Cas, what happened?"

"It's not important, Dean. Forget it."

Dean didn't forget it. That night, he snuck out of his house and climbed through Cas's window for the first time in nearly two years. He sat hesitantly on the edge of Cas's bed and Cas looked over at him sadly, eyes wide and youthful with innocence, "you didn't have to come over, Dean."

"I know," Dean was never one to sugarcoat, "But you need a friend right now. So I'm here."

Dean lay down next to Cas and in the moonlight he caught a glimpse of the bruises surrounding Cas's eyes and the tears filling them. He pulled Cas in against his chest and held the boy as he started to cry, "Dean...I'm gay."

"I know. And it's okay." Dean swore he could feel the nervousness melt out of his friend. He closed his eyes and they fell asleep that way, holding each other.

...........

Castiel Novak graduated middle school fifteen minutes and four seconds before Dean Winchester. Dean stood up and cheered loudly along with Cas's family. Cas looked over the crowd and met Dean's eyes and smiled. It was the first genuine smile he'd seen from Cas in over a month.

When it was Dean's turn, he heard Sammy and Cas screaming over the general cheers. He knew his dad wasn't in the crowd. Since Mary died in a car accident in 1999, John had spent more time with a bottle of Jack than his sons. Especially Dean, who hated himself for looking too much like his mom.

Exactly twenty-four minutes after Dean shook the principal's hand, Chuck and Rachel were taking pictures of the boys with their diplomas while Gabe told a wide-eyed Sam about all the hot girls he'd meet in middle school and Anna rolled her eyes.

The day the pictures came back, Dean and Cas lay in the Novak's backyard flipping through them. Dean looked over at Cas and back to the pictures, "you don't smile at all anymore." It wasn't a question, but Cas shrugged in response.


End file.
